These shots are from the Mission San Luis Rey Mexican War re-enactments from 1996 (which was the 150th anniversary) and from 1997-2001. The California mission was an American garrison during the War with Mexico. It was the largest California mission founded in 1798 under the Spanish, and is just 35 miles north of San Diego. Both Comm. Stockton's and General Kearny's men posted here in 1847. The Alcalde at that time (a type of local sheriff) of the mission was one of the American military scouts whose name was Jean Batiste Charbaneau: the son of Sacajawea; the Indian woman who guided Lewis & Clarke. The Mormon Battalion (U.S. Volunteers) garrisoned here as well under Col. Phillip St. George Cooke, who later on became a famous Civil War General. A Lt. George Stoneman was with the Battalion and also became a Union Civil War Cavalry General and eventually a California Governor in the 1880s.